Alleged killer ‘found’ partner decapitated

A QUEENSLAND woman accused of murdering her de facto partner claimed she returned to their house after a violent confrontation to find him decapitated and wrapped in plastic.

Lindy Yvonne Williams is on trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane over the death of George Gerbic, 66, on the Sunshine Coast in September 2013 after pleading not guilty to his murder.

In opening submissions on Monday, the court head Williams claimed Mr Gerbic hit his head due to slipping on her blood after he attacked her with a knife in their Tanawha home.

She told police she locked herself in a bedroom overnight, emerging the next day to see him on the ground where he had hit his head.

She claimed she left him unmoved and left the house for two days, returning to find his body missing its head, legs and arms.

Lindy Williams claims she returned home to find her partner without his limbs.

George Gerbic and accused murderer Lindy Williams.

Williams has pleaded guilty to interfering with his corpse after admitting to dumping the torso by the side of Cedar Pocket Road near Gympie, some 80 kilometres from where he was allegedly killed, and setting fire to the grassy area.

She has been accused of telling their friends and relatives Mr Gerbic was overseas after he had been killed.

Her lawyer Simon Lewis said Mr Gerbic's death was the result of an accident, and Williams' attempts to cover it up by disposing of the corpse did not mean she was responsible.

"This isn't a whodunit," Mr Lewis told the court.

"It might be a howdunnit. It's more about the circumstances in which a disaster has occurred.

"Was she covering up … a murder? Was she covering up a killing that happened in self-defence?

"Either way, she was covering up a killing."

The defence has not yet offered an explanation how Mr Gerbic was dismembered or who by.

Crown prosecutor Todd Fuller said Williams had told a friend she had engaged a "third party" to confront Mr Gerbic in the hope he would release more than $90,000 in a joint account.

She told a friend she and Mr Gerbic had fought over his bisexuality, and he had used a second phone to maintain a relationship with a man, according to the prosecution.

The court heard it took investigators around a year to identify Mr Gerbic, who was found charred and wrapped in plastic and rope.

A witness who reported the fire described the remains as appearing "like a parcel".

Around 60 witnesses are expected to be called throughout the Two-and-a-half week trial.